How do you bring your boldest self to your greatest creative challenges?

This is the question The Grove recently explored on the opening evening of our Cultivated Artist Experience four-day getaway. Bob Murphy and I challenged all of the artists in our Journey 2 & 3 groups to bring their boldest self to their creative challenges. We then...

If there is one thing our 12 acre organic lemon and avocado grove has taught us about farming during seasons of drought and freezing cold, creating sustainability is a challenging task.

Farming, like art making, is not for the faint of heart. Last year during a summer heat wave, the temperature reached a scorching 117 degrees Fahrenheit in...

As an artist, what does success look like to you?

I've never met an artist who doesn't want to be successful, but you and I know that success can be defined in many ways. Here's a few way artists define success...

Success is...

• Pushing my creative limits by always learning and practicing my art.
• Achieving creative flow as I work.
• Hitting the...

As an artist, I have two really important questions for you . . .

Who cares for your heart? And who cares for your art?

Really? Who helps cultivate, nurture, and tend your most important assets?

In reading one of my favorite spiritual authors this morning, Dallas Willard writes in Renovation of the Heart in Daily Practice . . .

The...

I love growing giant pumpkins. The only problem is, I stink at it.

This year at The Grove, we had a bumper crop of organic lemons and our avocados did pretty well too.

But on the small patch of soil in our backyard in San Clemente that's designated as our pumpkin patch, I couldn't grow one stinkin' pumpkin this past summer. I did get a nice...

In every great story or tale, something is at stake.

Let me repeat that: Something urgent and desperate is at stake.

If Indiana Jones doesn't stop the Nazis, the whole world is doomed to destruction.

If Luke Skywalker doesn't blow up the Death Star, the Empire will rule the galaxy.

If Wonder Woman doesn't defeat Ares, the god of war,...

I have two questions for you today.

And I will keep it very simple...

The first is, "Why are you an artist?"

How you answer this question will say a lot about you. 

Your identity. Your sense of vocation and calling. Your purpose. The aim and focus of your life.

The second question, for many of you, is a much more dangerous question.

...

(Play the video above to learn more about creative flow.)

Do you feel stuck, blocked, and frustrated by your lack of artistic output?

If so, you're not alone.

On the other hand, if you're riding a wave of great creative flow, living in the optimal experience of hitting your artistic goals, and producing art on a...

Are you traveling the way of weakness?

It's a path many of us do not want to take. Nor willingly choose. Or want to be dragged down.

When I was a kid, I vividly remember reading ads in the back of my comic books that warned me not to be a skinny weakling who got sand kicked in my face at the beach.

This was really important advice for me because...